MADURAI: A woman divorced on the ground of adultery cannot claim maintenance from her ex-husband, the Madras high court has ruled.

The judge made the observation while allowing a criminal revision case filed by a government staffer challenging a lower court’s order to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 1,000 to his former wife, whom he divorced in 2011 on the ground of adultery.

“Just as a man has an obligation to maintain his divorced wife, the woman also has an obligation not to have illicit relationship with another man,” Justice Nagamuthu said.

“The divorcee would suffer disqualification from claiming maintenance if she had relationship with another man. She was entitled to get maintenance from the person with whom she had relationship and not from the ex-husband,” he said.

Mumbai: Men’s rights activists on Friday demanded setting up of a national-level commission for men on the lines of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to safeguard their interests.

The demand was made when men’s rights activists from across the country gathered in Bhayander on Friday at a meeting organised by an NGO Save Indian Family.

Kumar Jahgirdar, who spearheads the movement for gender-neutral laws, and also runs an NGO Childrens’ Right Initiative for Shared Parenting, said, “Though men pay more than 82 per cent of the country’s income tax, no government has ever bothered to address their problems. Therefore, we demand a dedicated ministry for men’s welfare and also a men’s commission on the lines of NCW.” It is ironic that while there are dedicated ministries for even animals and forests but none for men, he added.

Swarup Sarkar, president of the Save Indian Family, an NGO which advocates gender neutral laws, said, “Now there is an urgent need to act against those women, who file false complaints (against husbands) with the protection of women-centric laws.”

Press Trust of India | Mumbai | Men’s rights activists today demanded setting up of a national-level commission for men on the lines of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to safeguard their interests.

The demand was made when men’s rights activists from across the country gathered in suburban Bhayander here today at a meeting organised by an NGO Save Indian Family.

Kumar Jahgirdar, who spearheads the movement for gender-neutral laws, and also runs an NGO– Childrens’ Right Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), said, “Though men pay more than 82 per cent of the country’s Income Tax, no government has ever bothered to address their problems. Therefore, we demand a dedicated ministry for men’s welfare and also a men’s commission on the lines of NCW.”

It is an irony that while there are dedicated ministries for even animals and forests but none for men, he added.

Swarup Sarkar, president of the Save Indian Family (SIF), an NGO which works to promote family and marital harmony and also advocates gender neutral laws, said, “Now there is an urgent need to act against those women, who file false complaints (against husbands) with the protection of women-centric laws.”

Interestingly, a number of women were also present at today’s event, who also vociferously demand setting up of a commission for men.

Barkha Trehan, a businesswomen from Delhi and also attached with SIF Delhi Chapter, said, “As many as fifty laws are made for women, but not a single for men. The voices of 50 per cent population are being completely unheard in this democratic country, which cannot be ignored now.”

“Now, government should wake up and have an assessment of the impact of only women-biased laws as 64,000 (citing National Crime Records Bureau data) are killed by their wives nationally,” she said.

The meeting in Bhayander will continue till Sunday and activists will pass resolutions seeking changes in laws, which will then be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “save Men” and treat them as equal citizens.

Tribune News Service – Jalandhar, August 12 | This Independence Day, a group of 50 NGOs, under the banner of Save Indian Family (SIF) and more than 180 activists across the nation will assemble in Mumbai for the advocacy of gender neutral laws.

The seventh national confluence has been earmarked to evolve a strategy for “protecting vulnerable men from laws facing undue harassment due to heavily loaded legal provisions against men.”

“The national confluence aims to evolve a consensus from nationwide volunteers to plan initiatives to empathise with the deteriorating situation of men on the legal front, health care and social status, to address men in distress through various channels, campaigns, creating of groups and establishing respect for men,” said members of the Insaaf Awareness Movement, including Kunal Aggarwal, president, Kamal Sharma, secretary, Vikas Madaan and Bharat Chauhan, the other activists from Jalandhar.

The members believe that men have been marginalised like never before. Apart from gender neutral laws, the group will also discuss the issue of suicide being committed by them. “Suicides exhibit social trauma and mental status of men. The NCRB 2014 illustrates the vulnerable situation that men are facing in the present scenario. Every 5.9 minutes, a men is committing suicide in India with family disputes as the single largest reason for male suicide,” they said in a press note.

New Delhi, Aug. 8: When the country celebrates one more year of Independence next Saturday, dozens of non-government organisations will be in the middle of a brainstorming session to work out a plan for a different kind of freedom.

For “harassed” males.

Their objective: create pressure groups and “sensitise” MPs into framing gender-neutral laws. The existing laws, they say, are biased against men.

The 50 NGOs, under the banner Save Indian Family, and more than 200 activists will assemble in Mumbai from August 14, the day the conference starts. The meet ends on August 16.

“The conference will evolve a strategy to create pressure groups to sensitise parliamentarians to formulate laws to address male-specific issues and work for gender-neutral laws,” said Kumar Jahgirdar, national president of the Children’s Right Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), a Bangalore-based NGO spearheading the movement for gender-neutral laws.

Kumar, who spoke to The Telegraph from Bangalore, said the conference would discuss threadbare the problems confronting men.

The NGO, which cited studies and figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), came up with statistics to back its campaign.

In India, it said, a man commits suicide every 5.8 minutes, with family disputes being the single largest reason. In 2014, 89,129 men committed suicide compared to 42,537 women.
The NGO said a key reason was men have no support system when faced with existing laws like the penal code’s Section 498A, under which a woman can file a case of harassment against her husband and in-laws.
In one case, the Supreme Court had equated the misuse of this section to “legal terrorism”.
According to NCRB figures for 2013, of the 9,68,728 undertrials charged under Section 498A, only 17,542 (1.8 per cent) were convicted. “Has the government thought of a rehabilitation plan for such victims of false cases?” Kumar asked.

The NGO said false cases of rape had added to the “legal terrorism” and wants women who file false cases to be punished.

Marital rape, it said, was another potential weapon of misuse. “A law against marital rape will give many people the scope to lodge false complaints. How does one prove in court whether a sexual encounter was consensual or forced? All privacy will be lost if a married couple starts thinking of legal aspects within their bedroom. We oppose such a move,” Kumar said.

Kumar also pointed out that in matrimonial disputes, family courts were generally biased against fathers. As for laws on workplace harassment, the NGO said they should be made gender neutral.

The three-day meet will also deliberate on the need for a separate ministry and a national commission for men.

Kumar said a memorandum would be signed by all the NGOs and submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the conference ends.